Chuo Printing Company Building (Former Katakura Group Office): A Surviving Headquarters of Japan's Greatest Silk Empire
Tucked beside the Tenryu River in the Kawagishi district of Okaya City, Nagano Prefecture, stands a quietly dignified two-story building that once served as the nerve center of the largest silk-reeling enterprise in Japan. The Chuo Printing Company Building, formerly known as the Katakura Group Office, was completed in 1910 (Meiji 43) within the grounds of the Kakigai Silk Reeling Factory — the very birthplace of the Katakura silk dynasty. Today, more than a century later, the structure still functions as a working office, its walls and woodwork preserving the atmosphere of an era when raw silk produced in Okaya clothed the world.
For travelers fascinated by Japan's modernization, industrial heritage, or the human story behind the global silk trade, this unassuming yet historically significant building offers a rare and authentic glimpse into a bygone age. It is, quite simply, one of the most evocative surviving artifacts of "SILK OKAYA" — the city once known overseas simply by that proud English name.
The Story of Katakura: From Backyard Reeling Hut to Silk Empire
To understand why this building matters, one must first appreciate the extraordinary family enterprise that built it. In 1873, a man named Katakura Ichisuke began reeling silk in a small shed in front of his home in Kawagishi Village (now part of Okaya City), using a hand-operated zaguri machine worked by ten people. From this modest beginning grew one of the most important industrial dynasties in modern Japanese history.
Ichisuke's eldest son, the first Katakura Kanetaro, founded the mechanized Kakigai Silk Reeling Factory in 1878 with thirty-two reeling pots. Expansion followed at a remarkable pace: a Matsumoto factory in 1890, the much larger Sanzensha mill in 1894, and the formal organization of the Katakura Group (Katakura-gumi) in 1895. By 1920, when the firm reorganized as Katakura Silk Reeling Spinning Co., Ltd., it operated eighteen factories with nearly twelve thousand reeling pots — the largest silk-producing enterprise in the country. The company survived the Showa Great Depression and continues to this day as Katakura Industries Co., Ltd.
The 1910 office in Kawagishi was built precisely at the geographic and emotional heart of this empire. Even after the head office moved to Tokyo, this building remained as the Katakura Group's headquarters office and the working base of the first and second Katakura Kanetaro. After the Second World War, the printing division spun off as the independent Chuo Printing Company, which inherited the building and uses it still today.
Why This Building Was Designated a Cultural Property
On December 20, 1996, the Chuo Printing Company Building was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) by the Japanese government. The timing carries its own historical weight: the registration system itself had only just been created earlier that year, and this Okaya office was selected in the very first round of registrations — a powerful endorsement of its national importance.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs cites two principal reasons for the building's value. First, it served as the headquarters of the Katakura Group, one of Japan's defining silk-reeling firms, and has been continuously inherited by an affiliated company down to the present day. Second, its architecture is unusually distinctive: an exterior combining stone-finished pier columns with brick wall surfaces, paired with an interior that takes a fundamentally Western design language and skillfully weaves in Japanese motifs. The official designation criterion — "serving as a model of formal design" — reflects the judgment that this building exemplifies the inventive hybrid aesthetic of late-Meiji industrial architecture.
Functionally, the building also represents something quite rare. Surviving administrative offices of Meiji-era silk-reeling factories are exceedingly few. As one of the last intact examples of this specific building type, it preserves not only an architectural style but the very organizational form of an industry that drove Japan's emergence as the world's leading raw silk exporter.
Highlights and Architectural Features
The Chuo Printing Company Building is a wood-frame two-story structure with a building area of approximately 335 square meters, measuring roughly 13.6 meters wide by 24.5 meters deep. Originally tile-roofed, it now wears a copper-sheet roof that has weathered to a dignified gray-green patina. The construction technique — a wooden skeleton clad in steel-mesh reinforced concrete and brick — was characteristic of the late-Meiji to Taisho period and represents an intriguing transitional moment in Japanese building history.
The exterior offers the most immediately compelling view. Vertical pier columns finished in artificial stone divide the brick wall surface into rhythmic bays, lending the facade a calm, formal grandeur appropriate to a corporate headquarters. The first-floor entrance is rendered in a fully Western style — a feature that visitors to Japan's Meiji-era industrial sites will recognize as the period's preferred symbol of modernity and international trade.
Inside, the building's hybrid character becomes most charming. The first-floor offices retain their original Western-style fittings, while the second floor opens into a generous Japanese-style hall (a traditional washitsu with tatami flooring). This careful negotiation between Western and Japanese sensibilities — Western for face, Japanese for hospitality — was a hallmark of how Meiji-era Japanese businesses presented themselves both to overseas trading partners and to domestic guests.
Please note that this is a working private office and only exterior viewing is possible. Visitors are kindly asked to admire the building from public roads and to respect the privacy of the company conducting business inside.
Surrounding Attractions in "Silk Okaya"
The former Katakura Group Office is one of many industrial heritage sites in Okaya, a city that the world once knew as SILK OKAYA. By 1924, more than sixty percent of Japan's exported raw silk was reeled in Okaya alone, and the surrounding district preserves remarkable traces of this golden age.
The Okaya Silk Museum (Silk Fact Okaya), located near central Okaya, is the only museum in Japan that houses an actively operating silk-reeling mill — the Miyasaka Silk Mill — alongside its exhibits. Visitors can watch traditional Suwa-style reeling machines in action, observe living silkworms year-round, and even try their hand at simple silk crafts. The museum makes an ideal pairing with a visit to the Katakura building, providing the wider context of the industry the office once helped to manage.
A short distance away in neighboring Suwa City, the Katakura-kan complex offers another remarkable Katakura-related landmark: a Western-style spa and assembly hall built in 1928 by the second Katakura Kanetaro for the welfare of workers and townspeople, now designated an Important Cultural Property. Lake Suwa itself, ringed by a pleasant sixteen-kilometer cycling path, is just minutes away. Okaya is also famous throughout Japan for its grilled freshwater eel (unagi), a savory specialty rooted in centuries of riverside dining tradition.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Nagano
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Chuo Printing Company Building (former Katakura-Gumi Office)
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Q&A
- Can visitors enter the Chuo Printing Company Building?
- No. The building is an active private office of Chuo Printing Company, and only exterior viewing is permitted. Please admire it respectfully from public roads without disturbing ongoing work inside.
- What was the Katakura Group?
- The Katakura Group, founded in Okaya in the late nineteenth century, grew into the largest silk-reeling enterprise in Japan, eventually operating eighteen factories with nearly twelve thousand reeling pots. The company continues today as Katakura Industries Co., Ltd.
- Why is this building's 1996 designation considered especially significant?
- Japan's Registered Tangible Cultural Property system was newly created in 1996, and this office was selected in the very first round of designations. Inclusion in that initial cohort is regarded as recognition of exceptional historical importance.
- How can I reach the building from Tokyo?
- Take the JR Chuo Main Line Limited Express Azusa from Shinjuku Station to Okaya Station, then transfer to a local train bound for Tatsuno and alight at Kawagishi Station, the closest station to the building. The journey from Tokyo takes roughly three hours in total.
- What other Katakura-related sites can I visit nearby?
- The Katakura-kan in Suwa City (an Important Cultural Property featuring a grand Western-style bathhouse and assembly hall) and the Okaya Silk Museum (Silk Fact Okaya), which preserves and operates traditional silk-reeling machinery, both offer excellent context for understanding the Katakura legacy.
Basic Information
| Name | Chuo Printing Company Building (Former Katakura Group Office) |
|---|---|
| Location | 1-1-20 Kawagishi, Okaya City, Nagano Prefecture |
| Year Completed | 1910 (Meiji 43) |
| Structure | Wood-frame two-story; copper-sheet roof; building area 335㎡ |
| Construction Technique | Wood frame with steel-mesh reinforced concrete and brick cladding; artificial stone pier columns |
| Designation | Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building); registered December 20, 1996 (first round of registrations) |
| Registration Number | 20-0002 |
| Owner | Chuo Printing Co., Ltd. |
| Access | Approx. a few minutes' walk from Kawagishi Station on the JR Chuo Main Line (Tatsuno route); approx. 5 minutes by car from Okaya IC on the Nagano Expressway |
| Visiting Notes | Exterior viewing only; the building remains an active private office |
References
- Cultural Heritage Online — Chuo Printing Company Building (Former Katakura Group Office)
- https://bunka.nii.ac.jp/heritages/detail/113127
- National Cultural Properties Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs) — Detail Record
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/101/00000047
- Okaya City Tourism Site — Former Katakura Group Office
- https://www.kanko-okaya.jp/enjoy/heritage/旧片倉組本部事務所-2/
- Okaya Navi — Former Katakura Group Headquarters Office
- http://okaya-navi.info/search/sangyouisan/detail/2/
- Okaya Silk — SILK OKAYA Story
- https://okayasilk.jp/about/
- Suwa Tourism Federation — Okaya Model Course
- https://www.suwa-tourism.jp/gosuwa/modelcourse/okaya.html
Last verified: 2026.05.01